Curt stood outside what was once the home of his co-worker, Kent Bailey. He’d tracked the drone back here, accompanied by Skyla, and Emma, the toddler unicorn who was one of the first seniors changed by Anna a few months back. They watched through an open window, scrambling from cover to cover across the street to find an angle that would let them see better. There was no movement they could see, but that wasn’t too surprising, given the drones didn’t need to so much as breath.
Skyla slipped into the shadows, coming in closer to the house, and looked straight through the window into the front room, before slipping back to Curt. “The front room is clear.”
“Great.” Curt nodded and turned to Emma. “Can you teleport us in there?”
“Wouldn’t that be trespassing, Master?” Emma asked. “And I thought you didn’t want me to risk teleporting other people with me until I was older?”
Curt shook his head. “Yeah, that’s all true. But it’s a risk we’ve got to take. I’ve got it on good authority that the person who lives here plans to hurt a lot of people. And I’ve got to stop him.”
Emma glanced toward the house. “What’s he planning to do? Can’t the police take care of it?”
Curt squatted down in front of her. “I wish they could, and I wish I could tell you. But the world as we know it is being twisted around. I need you to trust me.”
Emma seemed hesitant at first, as if her instincts to put Master’s needs first were telling her to start looking for some “special” help for him before he did anything crazy. She looked to the Head Maid, who nodded solemnly. “It’s hard to explain, but it’s true. Please, Emma.”
The unicorn slowly nodded. “Okay. I’ve never been in there, so there might be a hiccup or two, but here goes!” Her horn glowed brightly in the dim light of the sunset, a similar sparkling shine covering Curt and Skyla, as well.
Curt felt disoriented for a few seconds, the world turning to a swirling mix of colors and sounds for a brief moment, before he suddenly fell on a wooden floor, Skyla landing on top of him.
“ACK! Curt! Sorry, Sorry!” Sklya scrambled to get off of him.
“I apologize too, Master!” Emma said, helping him to his feet. “When I haven’t been IN a building before, it’s harder for me to judge the right spot to teleport us. I missed the floor by a few feet. Teleporting three people at once probably just made things worse.”
“It’s okay…” Curt rubbed a couple bruises. “Point is, we’re in. And now we can start looking for-” He turned around and gasped, leaping back as he came face to face with the black rabbit drone. The two maids stood back as well, Skyla readying her magic.
But the drone didn’t move. It didn’t even seem to acknowledge their existence.
Curt hesitantly stepped closer, and waved a hand in front of its face, which the rabbit did not track.
“Guess it’s,- ugh, HE’s either off, or not programmed for home security.”
“These things always gave me the creeps,” Emma murmured.
Curt took a deep breath. “Alright. We need to look around this place for a man, and an item of his, most likely a toy gun, as well as anything like journals, maps, written plans, something that might indicate what he’s planning on doing. Stick together, and watch each other’s backs.”
The three walked past the black rabbit, into the main hall, only Emma seeing the drone turn its head to watch them out of the corner of her eye.
The kitchen was spotless, save for a half-eaten meal at the table, still somewhat warm. A red fox drone stood by the table, as if waiting for a signal that its owner was truly done eating before cleaning up.
Realizing this meant the owner had either left in a hurry, or was still here somewhere, (neither being a good thing) Curt picked up the pace. As such, he didn’t notice when four knives were missing from the cutlery block.
A look through the laundry room, bathroom, and bedroom revealed nothing really out of the ordinary, and it looked like there was only one door left. Emma turned the knob, and the door suddenly forced itself open, a snake drone emerging from the lower half of the door frame, and a spider from the top, both brandishing knives that plunged toward the young unicorn!
On instinct, Emma vanished in a shower of sparkles. The two drones looked around briefly for a sign of her, before turning toward the other intruders. The snake drone reared back, and lunged toward Curt, who just narrowly avoided it. Skyla lit a flame in her hand, directing it upward as the spider drone crawled into position above her. She got ready to throw it, only to realize ‘no, that’s a person, probably just an innocent bystander, I can’t-’
Her thoughts, and attempt to switch to a shield spell, were interrupted by a sharp pain in her arm. Without a thought, she turned to look at her attacker, the black rabbit, brandishing another knife, which had made its way through her skin, blood dripping to the floor. Pain removing her hesitation, a blazing flame threw the attacker against the wall, making it stumble to the ground. She was about to turn her attention back to the spider, when she saw that the snake and the red fox from the kitchen had driven Curt into the bathroom and cornered him.
“CURT!” She shouted, all her energy focused on shielding her Master and the love of her life. The spider drone was ready to take action, and fell knife-first toward its target. But in a fraction of a second, a shower of sparkles appeared between them, and the little unicorn maid grabbed the spider by the arm, before both of them vanished in another shimmer.
The two drones that attacked Curt didn’t give any grunts of frustration or signs of agitation when their knives hit the glassy surface of the shield spell. With that intruder unable to be dealt with, they merely turned their focus back to the only remaining target. Skyla grimaced. She was apparently a prodigy in transformation magic, but there were still hundreds of spells she couldn’t wield nearly as well as her relatives since she didn’t remember “learning” them, and the shield was one of them. She would have to drop it if she wanted to defend herself, but she couldn’t let Curt get hurt, either.
‘If only I had a way to defend everyone,’ she thought.
After a pause, she grinned wickedly. ‘Or maybe I’ll defend THEM from everyone!’
As the drones moved toward her, the shield between them and Curt abruptly moved forward, and lurched around the drones, binding them tightly together, preventing their movement.
Curt breathed a sigh of relief. “Thanks, Skyla.”
“You’re welcome,” Skyla panted. “Now, could you toss some towels over them?”
“Towels?” Curt raised an eyebrow.
“JUST DO IT!” Skyla shouted. “...Please.” Her maid nature forced her to add.
Curt quickly grabbed the large towels off the floor, and the racks, and tossed them over the trapped drones, covering them from sight.
“Thanks,” Skyla said, dropping the shield. Before their attackers got a chance to move, Skyla’s transformation magic went to work, turning the soft fabrics into a solid steel mesh, nails forming to bolt it to the floor.
She leaned back against the wall, taking a few deep breaths, Curt joining her.
“Thanks a lot!” He said, putting an arm around her. “That was some quick thinking.”
“What kind of maid would I be if I couldn’t clean up the messes you get yourself into?” She laughed and gave him a kiss.
“Wait… Are you okay?” Curt looked at Skyla's wound. “Where’s Emma?”
As if in answer, a shower of sparkled appeared, the unicorn looking just as tired.
“I teleported the spider… whew... and the rabbit… to another part of town. I don’t think they’ll make it back here for a while." He eyes widened when she saw blood on Skyla's dress. "Head Maid Skyla! I'll help you!" Her horn glowed, Skyla's wound sealing, the pain fading.
"Thank you Emma," Skyla nodded.
"You're welcome. Now let’s get whatever this guy’s hiding down there, Master.”
Curt nodded, and after Skyla caught her breath, she led the way downstairs, holding her shield spell in front of them, all of them looking for any sort of tripwire, lasers, or other traps.
The unicorn’s horn and Skyla’s flames provided a soft glow that allowed curt to see the papers spread out, but carefully organized, on the floor, desks, and walls. Schematics for the ray gun, analysis of its parts, and speculation on what the properties of the foriegn elements might be, lined one side of the room, alongside blueprints of another device sitting beside a fractured, charred, fully constructed version of said device.
“Cross-universe jumper?” Emma read out loud. “I think this guy might read a few to many comic books.”
“Look at this!” Skyla whispered as she pointed to some of the notes on the gun. “I think he’s managed to rig up his gun to change people any way he wants. Looks like his was originally just supposed to make… genies, or something.”
“Then why the drones of all things?” Curt wondered. “Surely there’s more interesting stuff… Or maybe he just wanted servants that didn’t need ANYTHING from him in return… And it looks like he’s disabled ALL the safties on the gun. Paradox prevention, growing/shrinking risk assessors, and… Oh man… Master Immunity protocol.”
Skyla shuddered. “So he can make you into another one of those things? That’s it, I’m not leaving your side until this is over! I’ll try to block those blasts with my own body if I have to!”
“Seeing how it won’t affect you, that’s not a bad idea…”
Curt almost wished he could take time to look at all this and try to understand it himself, even if only to satisfy his own curiosity. Though, Modding the gun like Kent had almost seemed like it would take the fun out of things, even if he could do it in a way that didn’t leave the subject an empty shell.
The next wall of papers read like two parts business inventory sheet, one part to-do list, with notes in the margins like “ensure equal representation in police force at minimum,” and “secure majority hold on nearby power plant operations.”
“That can’t be good,” Curt muttered.
“Uh, Master, I think you should see this,” Emma pointed to a large map of the city, covered in pins, with a number of photos stapled to it. A few of the photos had been crossed off, but one had been circled in big, red marker. A photo of his face. And Curt began to recognize the pattern about the map of the city, and the implication of the area circled in the center of all the pins.
It was his home.
+++
A group of Jr. maids in the mansion’s theater were watching, either from backstage, or the seats, as another group of Jr. Maids rehearsed a play on stage. It was still in early production; nobody had any costumes yet, and the only part of the background that had been set up so far was a single potted plant, but the young maids were determined to at least start memorizing their lines while the other stuff was being worked on.
“You’ve done it! The wizard’s dead!” Stella, the young Sphinx girl cried with glee.
A red cardinal maid started to speak, but hesitantly closed her beak again.
An orange and yellow dragon toddler, in a pristine white dress, flipped a page in the script, before telling the larger, but younger cardinal. “Veronica, your next line is ‘and now to break his spell once and for all.’”
“Thanks Marin.” The bird cleared her throat. “And now to break the spell once and for all!” She gasped as she suddenly felt something pounce on her. “N-Noni?!” She called in a mix of surprise and frustration, as Anna’s cat balanced awkwardly on her shoulder and head. The other girls all let out quiet giggles.
“Oh, THERE you are!” Anna’s voice came from the auditorium entrance. With quick, nimble steps, Anna ran through the isle and hopped onto the stage, picking up her cat. “Sorry about that, girls.”
The little girls responded with a collection of “It’s alright Lady Anna”s and “We forgive you Lady Anna”s.
Anna held Noni in front of her, the cat’s front paws awkwardly sticking straight out toward her owner. “You know you’re not not supposed to be sneaking around this part of the house,” Anna said in a cutesy voice. “Or you’re gonna get punished.”
The non-anthro cat mewed pathetically.
“Yeah, you’re right, you probably won’t be.” Anna smiled. Holding the cat to her chest, Anna turned toward the children. “So putting on a play, huh? What’s it about?”
“It’s about a group of heroes who live in a kingdom of eternal night, who go on a journey to stop the evil wizard responsible, and restore light to-”
The lights all shut off at once, and the sounds of the A/C gradually slowed to a stop. Throughout the house, a number of maids could be heard gasping or shouting in confusion and surprise, and Anna sensitive ears could even pick up the sound of some objects being accidentally dropped in nearby rooms.
“The land…” Marin continued. The dragoness reached into her pocket, and pulled out a match, spitting a small flame on it. “Is everyone alright?”
A bunch of little “Yes”s and “OK”s could be heard.
“I wonder what happened,” Anna muttered. “There isn’t a storm out. And it’s not like someone can blow a fuse for the whole estate…”
The group wandered out of the theater and into a hall, with a large window on the side. The moon and stars could be seen clearly in the night sky, but all the lights in the estates grounds, and even the street lights and the power in buildings just beyond the gates, had gone out.
Anna’s eyes could see better in the dark than most. Even from this distance, she could make out a lot of humanoid shapes near the gates. None of them seemed to be moving.
An owl Jr. Maid fluttered upward a bit to get a better view. “Uh… Did master order a bunch of those rental drone thingys? They look kinda creepy out there.”
Anna’s blood ran cold. And it didn’t get any better when she got two texts from Curt.
The first, addressed only to her, read: “The drone owner is Kent Bailey. He knows who I am, and wants to change me, too! He’s coming to the mansion!”
The second, sent to all maids read: “The Latex Drones have become defective and gone rogue. Stay safe and do not approach them, or trust anything they say.”
“Girls!” Anna spoke up. “Come with me! We need to get you someplace you can hide!” ‘And once they’re safe,’ she thought, ‘I’m coming to help you too, Curt. Please, don’t get caught out there!’